April 28, 2010

Wolves sweep New Town in baseball action, fall to Ryan

By Neal A. Shipman
Farmer Editor

Watford City picked up a pair of wins over New Town in high school baseball action last Thursday before dropping a pair of games to Bishop Ryan on Saturday.
The Wolves defeated the Eagles by scores of 24-2 and 15-0 on April 22 and then lost to Bishop Ryan for the second time this season by scores of 9-6 and 2-0.
This week, the Wolves travel to Des Lacs-Burlington on Thursday.
Watford City 24, New Town 2
Watford City 15, New Town 0

Watford City scored 24 runs on 16 hits as the Wolves cruised to a 24-2 win over New Town in the first game of high school baseball double header action last Thursday. And the Wolves kept their bats going in the second game as Watford City shutout the Eagles 15-0.
Dillon Langerud picked up the win in the first game as he struck out six batters while giving up just one walk.
At the plate, Trey Jacobson and Karson Knudtson went four for four with each hitting a double.
In the second game, Lucas Nicholson earned the win as he pitched a no-hitter striking out seven batters and giving up one base on balls.
Offensively, Dylan Andersen and Blake Wold were two of three at the plate.
“New Town is  a very young team,” stated Justin Johnsrud, Wolves head coach. “Our younger players saw a lot of action in these two games. They played well in the field and did a good job at the plate.”
Game 1                                                                        R    H    E
Watford City                    6    1    8    9    0    X    X      24    16    1
New Town                      1    0    0    1    0    X    X        2       4    5
Game 2                                                                          R    H    E
Watford City                                 1    8    6    X    X      15    11    1
New Town                                    0    0    0    X    X        0    0     4
Bishop Ryan 9, Watford City 6
Bishop Ryan 2, Watford City 0

After trailing Bishop Ryan 7-1 after three innings of play, Watford City battled back against a very solid Lions team last Saturday afternoon. But a couple of Watford City miscues proved costly.
“We got off to a slow start,” stated Johnsrud. “The third inning hurt. We had a couple errors and did not make plays when we needed to and that allowed Ryan to score five runs on one hit.”
The Wolves would battle back scoring four runs in the fifth inning to get to a 9-5 deficit, but Ryan’s solid defense was too much for Watford City.
“We did a good job getting back into the game with a big fifth inning scoring four runs on three hits, but it was  too little too late. Being down 9-1 is a big hole to dig out of, especially to a good team like Ryan.”
Pitching for Watford City in the first game was Trey Jacobson, Nick Liebel and Douglas Rolfson.
Bishop Ryan took the second game of the day 2-0 to complete the sweep.
Taking the loss on the mound for the Wolves was Ben Haugeberg.
“Ben pitched well and our defense was much better in the second game,” stated Johnsrud. “We struggled at the plate only having two hits.”
Against strong teams like Bishop Ryan, Johnsrud sees the Wolves’ youth and inexperience showing.
“We have yet to play a ‘complete’ game,” commented Johnsrud. “When our pitching and defense have been good, we have struggled at the plate and then vise versa. We have three weeks of games left to get everything fine tuned before the Region Tournament. Hopefully, by the end of May both our offense and defense are playing more consistently.”
Game 1                                                                       R    H    E
Bishop Ryan                1    2    4    0    2    0    0        9    9    1
Watford City                  1    0    0    0    4    1    0        6    7    3
Game 2                                                                        R    H    E
Bishop Ryan                             0    0    0    2    0        2    7    1
Watford City                              0    0    0    0    0        0    2    0

WATFORD CITY WEATHER